YOUNG SPACE POWER: A visitor looks at an Indian spacecraft model on display at an international space technology exhibition in Hyderabad, capital of India’s southern Andhra Pradesh, on September 24, 2007

India put a cluster of 10 satellites into orbit in April. It integrated the instruments in the lunar probe on its maiden mission to the moon in June. It is speeding up research on intercontinental missiles. The country has been eye-catching in its development of space technology.

Since venturing into space in the 1960s, India has cranked up its technology advancement. Now space transportation, deep space exploration, missile weapons and satellites are all part of the country's agenda to boldly go where few others have gone. India's space industry has its eye on a new era where it may play a more dominant role in Asia.

Going all the way

The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) began to carry out research on launch vehicles in 1973. India has since developed increasingly powerful launch vehicles, which can send both homemade and foreign satellites into space.

India has developed four types of launch vehicles, the satellite launch vehicle-3, the augmented satellite launch vehicle, the polar satellite launch vehicle (PSLV) and the geosynchronous satellite launch vehicle (GSLV). While the former two types fell into disuse in 1983 and 1994 respectively, PSLV and GSLV launchers are India's major launch vehicles today.

IGNITION: An Agni-1 surface-to-surface missile loaded with a nuclear warhead is fired from a military base near India’s Orissa State on March 23

Lunar exploration has caught the attention of the international community